From the article:
"The victim, reportedly a man in his 20s, was among a group of divers going after cobia on a submerged wreck, said Palm Beach Shores Police Chief Duncan Young, who was briefed although his agency was not involved in the rescue. As one of the divers was swimming back to the boat carrying a speared fish, the shark attacked, he said.
Young said he and his officers have noticed more divers chumming, a practice that attracts sharks, to aid in their spearfishing."
It's my understanding from other thread discussion that some people out of Florida use a little chum to bring in sharks & shoot cobia that were hanging with the sharks. I have no idea how widespread this practice is, or how common it is to see cobia away from sharks. I wonder if they were hunting cobia in isolation from sharks, or something like this?
@dumpsterDiver
Before this curiosity snowballs into assumption; so far, from the article, I see no claim this group of spear fishermen were chumming, much less drawing sharks to bring cobia in to shoot.
Minor tangent from the article:
"Blacktip sharks inflict a large number of bites on swimmers, but these tend to be less serious than bites from bull sharks."
Do blacktip sharks really inflict a large # of bites on swimmers? That sounds like drama more than truth to me, though you could argue the definition of 'a large #.'
Richard.